Palestine records highest single-day virus death toll

By Esat Firat

JERUSALEM (AA) - Palestine registered 27 new fatalities from the novel coronavirus in the past 24 hours, the highest single-day rise since the beginning of the pandemic, the Health Ministry said Wednesday.

The latest figures took the death toll to 2,427.

Another 2,331 people also tested positive for COVID-19, pushing the overall case count to 229,035, the ministry said in a statement.

Some 2,163 infections were recorded in the West Bank and East Jerusalem while 168 cases were registered in the Gaza Strip.

The ministry said that 204,066 patients have recovered so far while 153 are hospitalized in critical condition.

The country has seen a significant surge in new infections and fatalities in recent weeks after the number of daily cases fell below 1,000 in mid-February.

As of Saturday, the Palestinian administration had imposed a one-week quarantine in many cities of the West Bank, including Ramallah.

*Writing by Zehra Nur Duz